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My favorite franchise as a child was Transformers.. I loved the cartoon, the characters, comics and of course the toys… but my favoritetoys.. the ones I played with more than anything else without question, was GI Joe. Not only because of the huge colorful cast of characters, amazing vehicles and battle sets you could fill your room with… but because of the articulation. Yes, back when I was <ten years old or so, I appreciated good articulation. More than appreciated it..I often turned my nose up at toys that lacked in that department. In fact, while Star Wars was easily my favorite movie/make-believe universe back then… I really didn’t like the figures… I never asked for them for Christmas (xwing, millennium falcon & tie fighter being the exceptions)or spent a dime of my allowance on them.. because I knew with their super limited articulation, I couldn’t pose them in exciting fighting poses. They couldn’t hold a gun in a cool way or wield those super rad lightsabers in both hands like they did in the films… they couldn’t even look up.

I had a ton of Transformers because I loved robots.. but I walked right past Masters of the Universe, WWF Wrestlers, Thundercats, etc in the toy isle. If they didn’t have a swivel bicep joint and rubber band holding them together, I really wasn’t interested.

Which brings me to today. Today, I’m holding a GI Joe… well, not just ANY Joe.. the most badass of Joes, freak’n Snake Eyes.. and he’s put together by the guys behind some of the MOST articulated and well made 1/6 figures available on the market today, 1000Toys. (Check out a few more of their figures we’ve reviewed here, here and here) Continue reading →

INTRO
This is our first review of a HeroCross Hybrid Metal Figuration.. uh.. figure. (Try saying that five times real fast)

The good folks at HeroCross were kind enough to reach out to us and ask if we’d be interested in reviewing some of their figures. I always really enjoyed checking out their displays at SDCC in past years but hadn’t had any personal experience with them so, I jumped at the opportunity.

They gave us a a pretty wide range of figures to choose from… Predator/Alien.. Star Wars.. Batman… etc.. etc… After a little back and forth, I mentioned how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really caught my eye. So they sent me Michelangelo.

Now, I’m not complaining, but I admit, when I was told we’d be getting the turtles to review, I was thinking they’d send all FOUR of them.. since you know, they’re a team of turtles and it’s hard to have turtles plural, with only one turtle… but that’s probably just me being greedy for more cool stuff to play with.

That said, Mikey is looking a little lonely up there on the shelf all by his lonesome so let me bust him out and get on with the review!

So it’s been a few months since SDCC and despite our best efforts, we had to wait all this time to actually go through and process/edit the hundreds of photos we took over the course of the event.

I could regale you with a long story about professional life/family life/LIFE life getting in the way of getting it done in a more timely manner.. but that’d probably bore you, if I haven’t already.

As always, the cosplayers really brought their A-game to SDCC this year. Walking the floor snapping shots of them are one of my favorite pastimes during the con. I’m astonished by the talent as well as the cajones often on display. Between SDCC and walking the beaches in Hawaii.. I’m constantly reminded that I need to put the donut down and hit the gym.

One day, I just might.

So! On to the shots. These are just a few of my favorites while the rest will be holed up in a massive album over on our Facebook page, so head over there to get the full run.

Every one of us. Spoiled rotten.
That was the 1st thing I thought of when I removed Optimus Prime from the sleek ThreeA packaging. I pulled Optimus from the safety of his cut foam coffin and was surprised when I felt an almost passive reaction to him.

Not in an unimpressed or poorly received way.. just a “Yup, it’s another ThreeA toy”
Which translates to, “Yup, it’s another highly articulated, insanely detailed, fantastically painted and weathered giant robot toy from ThreeA”

Sigh.

Let me explain. Think back to the kind of toys we had growing up (unless you’re still growing up, in which case.. get off my lawn!!”) Simple toys, unrealistic, cheap plastics, sloppy paints, limited articulation…. Back in our day, there wasn’t anything like the collectors market for action figures and pop culture collectibles like there is today. We were happy and impressed by the simplest Transformers Hasbro, Mattel or Kenner pumped on the local toy aisle. I mean, those are all still awesome in their own way.. a lot of the classics are absolutely beautiful to me.. but considering where toys are now.. particularly in articulation and engineering, it’s really hard to compare.